Demo Tape Discipline

the power behind the button

Marvin Caesar, the president of Aphex speaks about how the Aural Exciter came into being, and for the first time reveals news of some forthcoming interesting new products...

A History Of Knobs

guitar controls: big ones, small ones, useful ones, icky-kacky ones...

Part 1 looks at early keyboard instruments

Cheap guitars, new samplers, drum machines, synths and more - plus free details if you want them

UV PoP

With Digital Audio Tape becoming widely used for mastering, it's important to know how it differs from its quarter-inch predecessor and how it can benefit you. Vic Lennard acknowledges his new master.

'S' Appeal

Is it the birth of a new standard? Dave Lockwood drools over Tascam's Dolby S-equipped one-inch 24-track.

As Soul II Soul return this month with a third album, Paul Ireson reports from their private studio on the writing and recording of more club classics.

GuitarCheck

Dave Burrluck dons swimming trunks and picks up his surfboard to review this reissue of famous sixties favourite, the Fender Jag

PC Hard Disk Recording System

It's British designed and built, but is it the best?

Svelte, chic, sophisticated, smooth chanteuse Jim Betteridge takes Sade to the fade

16-Bit Stereo Sampler

Akai's S1000 is without doubt the industry standard professional sampler, so why try and improve on the best? Paul Wiffen finds that SMPTE cue listing, AES/EBU real-time output, and built-in effects are a good start (with hard disk recording to follow).

Contour your instrument envelopes with this versatile effect unit

Producer Pro

Video software upgrade

Reports of some of the new products unveiled at this year's Frankfurt Music Fair which will be winging their way into the shops over the coming months.

Martin Goldman examines the dos and don'ts of tape machine maintenance.

From SOS to 8-track

Another chance to see who bought what, why they bought it and how pleased they are now that it's too late to send it back.

New York was the setting for the 83rd Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, where audio manufacturers gathered to show off their new wares. Craig Anderton provides a rundown of the main highlights.

More meaty studio hints and tips to get your teeth into.

A sampling delay/effects controller from TC Electronics, news of Roland's MKS100 'sampler in a box', a new range of micro effects from Akai, Audio Kinetics' Striper, Studiomaster Series III and Yamaha mixers are amongst the new crop of forthcoming products that you can read about here.

A quick gaze at the crystal ball reveals a new MIDI mixer from Simmons, a digital reverb/effects processor from AKG, a MIDI-CV module from Tantek, and plenty more...